Day 247 – Valinhos to Sao Paulo, Brazil

Day 247 – Valinhos to Sao Paulo, Brazil 04/25/11 Mileage: 86

Warning to parents: Do not show this post to your teenage boys or they may run off to Brazil in search of a girl!   😉

I had found a big Kawasaki shop in Campinas not to far from Uli’s house. Sabine lead the way there and we found it easy enough. I of course don’t speak a word of Portuguese so having Sabine with me to describe the work I needed down was a godsend.

Sabine at Sudio Kawasaki in Campinas trying to translate “check for play in the steering head bearing”….

As it turns out they couldn’t work on the bike for at least a week but they gave us the address of their other shop in Sao Pauo. That shop ended up being not to far from Sabine’s other sister Gisa’s house and they could get me in today…great! Or plan was to head to Sao Paulo anyway, so we packed up and I followed Sabine to the other shop. We arrived and were greeted by the service manager Edu who is an awesome guy and took great care of me.

Me and Edu from Studio Kawasaki in Sao Paulo….a great shop that I can highly recommend!

With Sabine’s translation assistance Edu got me and the bike squared away and reassured me that the bike was in good hands. The background of his computer desktop was a great shot of a supermoto rider, and when Edu told me that it was his 16 year old daughter I was floored!

And as if that weren’t enough, she is also ranked number 1 in Brazil having won the championship! And no, there is no girls division…she wooped up on all the boys!

She is in fact such a talented rider that she got a U.S. sponsor and an invite to race in Las Vegas….how cool is that.

So, with my bike in good hands we went to Sabine’s sister Gisa’s house, had a nice dinner at home and called it a night.

Day 246 – Morungaba to Valinhos, Brazil

Day 246 – Morungaba to Valinhos, Brazil      04/24/11      Mileage: 36

It was a leisurely morning, for me anyway, and I didn’t get up until 10. Uli and her daughter headed home and Sabine and I went for another mountain bike ride. I haven’t been on a XC bike ride for 9 months now and my legs and lungs were letting me know it.

Towards the end of the ride we were both famished and stopped into a roadside corn stand that Sabine knew of. It’s a place that serves corn every kind of way you can think of, but we settled on sampling what I would describe as a chicken stuffed corn fritter, a sweet corn polenta and a salty corn polenta both served in a corn husk, a cup of corn juice, and for dessert a sweet corn custard…and we washed it all down with a couple of Coke’s.

Both now stuffed like the corn fritter we mowed down moments ago, we got back on the bikes and wallowed the rest of the way back to the farm. We took a quick dip in the pool, showered and then packed up to head over to Uli’s house in Valinhos a short distance away. That night Uli, Bobby, her two daughters, Sabine and I went out for sushi (no, it wasn’t as good as Ota’ya!) which was a tasty way to end another great day.

Day 245 – Morungapa, Brazil

Day 245 – Morungapa, Brazil      04/23/11      Mileage: 0

The whole gang had breakfast together after which Sabine and I went to see the farm next door that her and her husband just purchased. She showed me around the property for a bit and is quite a nice place itself. We were soon joined by the rest of the gang and all walked around the main farm and down to the river adjoining the property.

Back at the house we played some tennis, got some pool time and then 2 of the guys made a proper Brazilian churrasco which was all great fun!

After letting lunch settle a bit Sabine and I went for a mountain bike ride. We decided to take the long way back to the farm, ended up running out of daylight and had to call back to the farm to have one of the guys come get us from the side of the road with a pick-up.

Back at the farm most of the gang was packing to head home except Uli and her daughter Julie. So after seeing everyone off Sabine, Uli and I got some sauna time which felt great after the ride. That night the 4 of us played cards until midnight before calling it a night. It was another fun filled day for sure!

Day 244 – Salto to Marungapa, Brazil

Day 244 – Salto to Marungapa, Brazil      04/22/11      Mileage: 58

It was a short ride to Morungaba to the church in the center square which was where my friend Sabine and I agreed to meet as she had just walked off a flight from the U.S. I found the square easy enough and she waved me down just as I got to the church.

 It was so great to see a familiar face and a dear friend after all these months! We grabbed a beer in a bar across the street and then headed up to her families farm just outside of town. We arrived at the farm and I have to say that calling this a farm is like calling the Beverly Willshire a motel. The property is in an amazing setting with great views of the surrounding countryside. There is also a pool, 2 tennis courts, a small soccer field, a bocce court, a volleyball net and well stocked bar.

One of the two tennis courts…

The soccer field…

If I’m not home in a few months you know where to find me. Her sister Uli was there also with a nice group of friends so there was a bit of a party going on already! I quickly unpacked, got out of my riding gear, popped open a beer and jumped in the pool. Soon after everyone gathered for a nice lunch which we followed up with a rousing game of bocce that went on until sunset.

That night we had a wonderfully evening of dinner, drinks, good conversation with great company and a huge barn fire to cap it all off.

Me and my friend Sabine….

That’s me standing in front….now that’s a fire!

That was such a fun day I don’t know how I will bring myself to leave…

Day 243 – Santa Tereza Do Oeste to Salto, Brazil

Day 243 – Santa Tereza do Oeste to Salto, Brazil      04/21/11      Mileage: 559

Today it was all business laying down miles towards Sao Paulo. It rained on and off most of the morning so it was hard to make good time. Like the other day he roads were very slick in spots and the back end of the bike broke loose again in a corner. The paper map and the GPS map were fighting all morning as well so I had to stop at each junction to find the right road. I was pulled over at the side a traffic circle looking at the map when another rider on a DL650 V-Strom pulled up. As it turns out he was on his way home which was on the way to Sao Paulo, so he offered to lead the way. It was great having a local out in front and for the first time in a long time I didn’t have to worry about navigating….I could just ride and enjoy the scenery.

 Me and my Brazilian guide….

The rain also stopped and the roads dried out making it easier to keep the pace up. After a few hours we arrived in Cornelio Procopio where he showed me the downtown and their Christ the Redeemer statue which also had a great view of the surrounding countryside.

A view of downtown Cornelio Procopio….

He showed me the way back to the highway, I thanked him for his guiding services and I was back on the road. At dusk I started looking for a hotel but the only accommodations along the road were no-tell-motels. I of course have no problem staying in them and I stopped into several, but none would give me a room for the entire night except one but they wanted too much money. So, I pressed on in the dark but didn’t pass a proper roadside hotel for almost another 2 hours. Well, at least tomorrow it will be a short ride to meet up with my friend Sabine in Morungaba tomorrow!

Day 242 – Iguacu Falls and Itaipu Dam, Brazil

Day 242 – Iguacu Falls and Itaipu Dam, Brazil      04/20/11      Mileage: 191

Nice breakfast, packed the bike, blah, blah… I’ll skip right to the good stuff. The Parque Nacional Do Iguacu Falls was one of the first pins I put in my map of must see places when I began planning this trip, and I was going to pick that one off today.  The park is a little touristy, but they did a nice job with it and it doesn’t seem cheesy at all. You can’t ride or take your car into the park……the only way to get to the falls is to take the shuttle buses.

There are over 275 individual waterfalls spanning several kilometers along a horseshoe shaped gorge and rang in size from a small stream to the size of Niagara Falls! It is simply impossible to wrap your head or camera lens around the scale of the scene. Here are the pics…

The trail along the gorge to view the falls is over a kilometer long and it’s impossible to get all of the falls in one picture…can’t be done!

Views up and down the gorge….

These cute little guys were roaming around everywhere…

Lost in translation….

The falls also divide Brazil and Argentina….and you can see the flag of Argentina at above the observation platform across the gorge.

So with that checked off my life list, I had just enough time to also tour the enormous Itaipu Dam which is about 15 miles away. The dam was a joint project with neighboring Paraguay on the Parana. River which divides the two countries and is the largest operating hydroelectric plant on earth. Even though Brazil is 20 times the size of Paraguay in every way, they share everything 50/50 right down the middle…from the power it generates to the workforce which is half Brazilian and half Paraguayan…1500 workers each. The size of the dam is almost as hard to imagine as Iguacu Falls. It’s almost 8 kilometers long (5 miles) and provides 90% of the power used in all of Uruguay and 19% in Brazil.

This is the giant spillway…..and of course the pictures just do not do it justice…..it is enormous!

The size just doesn’t come across in the pictures, but it’s as tall as a 68 story building…and 5 miles long end to end!

Those big pipes are 10 meters (33 feet) across, and just 2 of them (there are 20 all together!) can carry the entire flow of Iguacu Falls!

A view of the giant spillway from above…

After finishing the tour I made my way back to Santa Tereza Do Oeste to the same hotel I stayed at last night. Tomorrow will be all business laying down miles to get to Sao Paulo by Friday afternoon where I have a hot Brazilian chick waiting for me. My friend Sabine is flying down from the US to spend time with me and her family over Easter…it will be great to see a familiar face! It’s too bad her husband and also one of my best friends, Johnny O (a wild man on his KTM 625 SXC) couldn’t make it down.

Day 241 – Maravilha to Santa Tereza Do Oeste, Brazil

Day 241 – Maravilha to Santa Tereza Do Oeste, Brazil      04/19/11       Mileage: 199

I lingered this morning to enjoy my sweet digs, use the wifi, and get my $35 worth of the very nice breakfast.

The Maravilha Park Hotel….very nice for $35 USD….

Complete with a regulation soccer field and sand volleyball court…

I had to do some financial reshuffling also as I haven’t found a bank ATM yet that likes my card. The weather was clear and warm and the road north was also great fun twisting and turning over rolling hills.

Odd town sign at the entrance to Maravilha…

I was trying to make time to make up for my late start so I didn’t stop to take many pictures. It also started raining for the last 2 hours of riding and again the roads got very slick.

Darkness caught up to me about 90 miles from my destination…Iguacu Falls. That will have to wait for tomorrow morning, and another one off the life list…

Day 240 – Sao Sepe to Maravilha, Brazil

Day 240 – Sao Sepe to Maravilha, Brazil     04/18/11     Mileage: 285

I awoke to the sound of diesel engines which is of course no surprise as I was camping in a truck stop. Well, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em….so I packed up the bike and split.

It was raining on and off and the road, while paved, was very slippery in spots and it caught me off guard the first few times the bike got loose on me. The rear end broke loose and fishtailed when I was braking for a speed bump and another time simply by down-shifting. Granted I’m on knobby tires with high air pressure to survive the highway speeds, but I was used to that….this was different. What I finally figured out is that most of the side roads are not paved, and the dirt…this reddish brown clay…gets dragged onto the paved road by other vehicles. It was this reddish brown clay that was making the roads slick in the rain, but it was hard to see.

Taking a break and drying off a bit…

I stopped several times for gas and to dry off a bit, and the bike seems to garner a bit of attention again like Central America. Several people asked me questions, but I couldn’t answer of course as the extent of my Portuguese amounts to 3 words…oi, which means hi, obrigado, which means thank you, and caipirinha, which means 2 oz’s of cachaca or vodka, 2 muddled limes and sugar, shaken on the rocks….which is only handy if you’re thirsty and in search of a hangover. If they spoke a little Spanish then I was able to get some points across. But compared to my Portuguese, in Spanish I’m virtually a cunning linguist. I jest of course, as Helena and Gustavo’s sons, age 5 and 3, regularly trounced my Spanish and had to speak to me in English. They are being raised bilingual…how great is that! So anyway, I arrived in Maravilha and saw a nice hotel set back off the side of the road. Chilled and soaked, I decided to just ask even though it looked out of my budget. It was actually only $35 USD…above my budget but within reach for one night….and breakfast and all the wifi I could use was included. It also had a well stocked bar…enough said. After settling in I adjourned to the bar for a beer and burger. Most beer down here is available in liter size, and like all beer the first one goes down fast. The second liter sometimes takes a you bit longer and sometimes…..the last bit gets a little warmish for optimum consumption. Well, this hotel has a solution in the form of a liter size beer cozy. Perfect!

They also march to their own drum in the hamburger department. I ordered the hamburger completo…which usually means lettuce, tomato, cheese…etc. Well, this burger completo was very completo! It had the lettuce, tomato, onions, cheese, bacon, mayonnaise, mustard and ketchup….I’m with it so far…ham also….OK…a fried egg….hmm…sure why not. But they strayed from the reservation with layer of peas and corn.

Fried egg…..

…peas and corn.

Don’t get me wrong, I still mowed that thing down like Rosie O’Donnell at a Krispy Cream buffet, but it was a little odd.

 Bloated….from the burger or the beers, I’m not sure which…I wallowed back to my room to sleep it off…